School of Economics Chair, Laura Taylor, co-leads the “Beyond Carbon” team along with Beril Totkay and Michael Oxman, (Scheller College of Business) and David Iwaniec (Georgia State University) as a part of the Georgia Drawdown Project.
The Georgia Drawdown project aims to identify the most promising solutions to significantly reduce Georgia’s net carbon emissions by 2030 while providing opportunities for economic development and other social benefits. The Drawdown Georgia project is funded by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. Kim Cobb, who leads the Global Change Program — which is also supported by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation — believes the project is a perfect fit for Georgia Tech because of its commitment to ‘Progress and Service’ and to Georgians.
The approach of the “Beyond Carbon” team involves understanding Georgia’s baseline carbon footprint and trends, identifying high-impact 2030 solutions, estimating their carbon reduction potential as well as their costs and benefits, including their impact on societal priorities beyond carbon. These solutions provide an evidence-based pathway for reducing the state’s carbon footprint in the next decade using market-ready technologies and practices. Despite its recent start, the project has already identified 21 high-impact 2030 solutions, which are fully described in the working paper.